According to the DSM-IV-TR, diagnostic criteria for the PTSD Diagnosis include the following:

A.) The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:

1.) the person experienced,
witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat
to the physcial integrity of self or others.

2.) the person's response
involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. In children, this may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated
behavior.

B.) The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in one (or more) of the following ways:

1.) recurrent and intrusive distressing
recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions. In young children, repetitive play may occur
in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.

2.) recurrent distressing dreams
of the event. In children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.

3.) acting or feeling as if the
traumatic event were reoccurring ( includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and disassociative
flashback episodes, including those that occur on awakening or when intoxicated). In young children, trauma-specific
reenactment may occur.

4.) intense psychological distress
at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

5.) physiological reactivity
on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

C.) Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness
(not present before the trauma), as indicated by three (or more) of the following:

1.) efforts to avoid
thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma

2.) efforts to avoid
activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma